Friday, day five

Today we had planned to go to the Vanilla Farm on the Hamakua Coast (northeast) for the “Vanilla Experience Lunch and Tour” and then we were going to drive down south of Hilo for a boat ride out to see the lava from the ocean side before we came back to Hilo to eat at one of our very favorite restaurants, Café Pesto, in the S. Hata building right in town on the bay. We decided to cancel the boat tour because the lava had stopped flowing into the ocean after a small earthquake a couple of weeks ago and hadn't resumed yet. Maybe next year. But that did take off the pressure for dashing from the farm to the boat.

Our day started with a little Novell time for O, and then we headed up through Waimea and around and down the Hamakua coast.

We enjoyed our time at the Vanilla plantation. Lunch was delicious- vanilla everything. We enjoyed “orange-vanilla marinated chicken breast and caramelized onions atop herbed focaccia bread with Vanilla-Mango Chutney aioli, Way South West roasted red potatoes, farm fresh organic greens with Vanilla-Raspberry Vinaigrette, crumbled feta and Vanilla-Honey-Peppered Pecans, Vanilla Lemonade and Hawaiian vanilla bean ice cream." The grower talked to us about his farm while we ate. Then we went down to one of the shade houses to see how they grow their vanilla. Tasty and interesting visit.

We didn’t go into the shade houses that had blooming or fruiting vines, but here are pics from a house with vines that are about a year from production. Vanilla orchids are an understory plant, climbing on trees where they are partially shaded. The pvc stands take the place of the trees and give the vines a place to climb.

On our way down to Hilo, we made a stop at Akaka Falls State Park for our traditional hike to the falls. To get there, you take a road through the little, tiny town of Honomu and out across the abandoned cane fields where there are now a few houses and small farms. You would never guess there is this fabulous little park because it is actually a ravine out in the middle of the old sugar cane fields and you can’t even tell there is something there when you reach the parking area. Once you leave your car and start down the trail, though, it is a completely different world with lush tropical vegetation covering the walls of the ravine, and smalls streams, gentle cascades and mini-falls all along the trails. Every step of the way, you can hear the gurgling, trickling and burbling of the water that is draining into the ravine. There is another nice waterfall along the trail called Kahuna Falls, but we didn’t take any pictures of it this year. Here are a few pictures of Akaka Falls from our hike this year.

For the past couple of years, the falls trail has been partially closed while they renovated the trail. Finally this year, we were able to walk the entire loop trail again.

We had time to kill when we got to Hilo so we drove on through and out to Akatsuka’s Orchid house (on the road to Volcano National Park) to look around before dinner. There are always interesting things to see there and you can look around for free (sorry, orchid junkies, but we didn’t take any pictures there this year). Then it was off to Hilo and Café Pesto.

Enjoyed and early dinner at Café Pesto. They have absolutely the best calamari appetizer ever- thick, meaty pieces of coconut-crusted calamari on an arugula/won bok and pickled ginger slaw with a honey-mustard dipping sauce. O has been anticipating this for months. The portion is generous and as usual, he had the calimari appetizer and one of their excellent, local-fresh salads to make a meal of it. I had my favorite, the half-moon shrimp nachos with a local sweet corn relish in a mild chili dressing.

The nachos are actually flat, crispy wonton wrappers topped with smoked mozzarella, shrimp and cilantro sour cream. Spoon a little corn relish on each nacho and Mmmmm! It’s just amazing. Pesto’s is also known for their fabulous pizzas and they have assorted pastas, salads and a few meaty dishes as well. A little upscale, but worth it! We left with a piece of their coconut tart with vanilla cream sauce to enjoy later. A very foodie day.

We made the drive back around and through Waimea, at the bottom of the northern part of the island and down into Kona in the dark, listening to “Wait, Wait....Don’t Tell Me!” podcasts, laughing and enjoying the lights of the different small towns and resorts along the highway.